Birthday Magic
by The Broken Mask
Summary: Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #2. It's Irenia's birthday but no one else seems to have remembered, not even her siblings. However, with the help of a bit of magic, Irenia won't feel forgotten today.


**Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #2**

 **Prompt: It's an engine's build day (birthday)! Do they celebrate? If so, how?**

 **Restrictions: At least three engines must be used, even if the other two are just cameos. One non-human character must at least cameo. Aside from the main engine's crew and very important characters (Sir Topham Hatt and Jacob Hatt), no humans may directly speak.**

 **Word count: 2,137**

 **Characters: Irenia (OC), Ryan (Canon), Emily (Canon), Alicia (OC), Jacques and Ken (OC Unnamed), Edward (Canon), Connor (Canon Cameo), Caitlin (Canon Cameo), Daisy (Canon Cameo), Rest of the Alaskan Twelve (Unnamed Cameo), Alice (Unnamed Cameo)**

 **Note: Only OCs and plot belong to me. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.**

* * *

On the Island of Sodor, November was slowly beginning to give way December as distinctly chilly weather began to settle in, grey clouds in the sky above threating the island with more thick layers of snow on top of what had already fallen.  
At the roundhouse, the crews of all the engines that were needed for the start of the day were already there, warming their engines up, who were all chattering excitedly amongst themselves. In particular, the youngest set of twins of the infamous Alaskan Twelve, a group of twelve similar looking engines that came from a now closed private railway up in the Chugach Mountains.  
"It's five days until December!" The younger announced, his orange striped boiler practically bursting with excitement.  
"And only thirty days until Christmas!" His brother chimed in, rolling impatiently back and forth on his green lined wheels. "Are you excited, Irenia?"  
In the next birth, his white striped sister gave him a distracted smile.  
"Sure am."  
However, her distractedness wasn't noted by either of her brothers or the sister sat in the birth on the other side of her, chattering away to her newly repainted boyfriend.  
The engine sighed again, her eyes downcast to the icy line below. No one seemed to have remembered what today was. No one seemed to even care.  
She glanced up as the ever impressive figure of the Fat Controller strode over to them, plastering on a smile as he looked up at her.  
"Good morning Irenia!" He beamed, his attention on her and her only.  
"Good morning sir." The white engine smiled back, not having quite enough steam for a cheery whistle.  
"I have a special and very important job for you today!" He announced, "Alicia and Emily are due at Vicarstown in around an hour with the last of the supplies for the coming months. I need you to deliver them to stations all over Sodor!"  
"A-All over?" Irenia looked shocked, glancing either side of her quickly before looking back at him as he began to swing his arms dramatically.  
"Yes, Irenia. Every station on Sodor, all the way from Norramby to Hardwick and everywhere in between!"  
The water in Irenia's boiler ran cold as this sunk in. This would take all day! But she couldn't argue with him.  
"Of course sir."  
"Very good, Irenia." The Fat Controller nodded, turning on his heel after adding "Have a good day."  
For a moment, Irenia swore that she saw him wink at her, but passed it off as her crew called around to her.  
"Come on, we better get started then!" Her driver encouraged.  
With a whistle, the black and white engine puffed away from the sheds.

It wasn't too long before Irenia arrived into one of the central lines of Vicarstown station, which was unusually quiet for a Friday morning, with the exception of Conner and Caitlin whooshing through the far side.  
 _I wish I could go to the mainland..._ She thought.  
However, her thoughts were soon interrupted by a matching pair of whistles as the bridge clunked together and the barriers raised, allowing the black and emerald sisters back onto their home island, both pulling to a stop in the platform on the opposite side to the Alaskan engine, both whistling cheerily, their cheeks bright red from the cold and from excitement and pulling three big trucks, one was a flatbed overflowing with Christmas trees big and small and the other two were boxed up with "Knapford" and "Tidmouth" written on the sides.  
"Irenia? Is everything okay?" Emily asked in her Scottish accent as Irenia raised an eyebrow.  
"Is this it? The Fat Controller told me I'd be going pretty much everywhere today." Irenia slowly replied.  
"That's because all the supplies are pretty much everywhere." Emily's twin in black replied, looking extremely frustrated.  
"Cheer up, Alicia. That's probably why the Fat Controller drafted Irenia in." Emily soothed, making her sister smile.  
"I know. Alright Irenia, these top two trees are for Ballahoo and Norramby. There is more stuff at Crovan's Gate for Kirk Ronan and Rolf's Castle." Alicia told Irenia as she and her sister backed off the trucks to let the Alaskan engine couple on. "We'll probably see you around again."  
"Okay, thank you you two." Irenia replied, casting an intimidating glare at the trucks to make sure they behaved.  
"And Irenia?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Happy birthday!" The sisters chorused, sending their friend into a broad grin.  
"Thank you!" She beamed, whistling her goodbye and roaring her way down the Ballahoo line.

As predicted, there were was another truck at Crovan's Gate for the Kirk Ronan line in replacement for the one she had picked up at Ballahoo to be dropped off at Crovan's Gate, a small truck of coal, along with lots more for the rest of the island.  
As she set off, Irenia whistled to Alicia who was taking some parts to Victor and the engines that needed fixing.  
Irenia let out a relaxed sigh as she ran along the peaceful little branch line down towards the seaside, enjoying the scenery as it raced by, not noticing other engines as they whistled greetings to her. Even when she stopped at the small station of Rolf's Castle her crew couldn't get her out of her happy daze. Her sadness had been forgotten. For now.  
As she rolled into Kirk Ronan, she had begun to hum a bright and happy song, which soon faded away as she stopped before Gordan's view, dazzled at the beauty of the idyllic view before her. She wasn't as big as Gordan, but she could still see through the hole.  
"We're going to be here for a while, Irenia." Her fireman told her. "The offloader isn't working properly."  
Irenia just hummed an acknowledgement. She would be happy to stay here forever.

Despite the small load and early start, it was early in the afternoon before Irenia got back to Crovan's Gate, picking up more freight for the rest of the line. She waited as long as she could at Killdane but she didn't get to catch a glimpse at the illusive electric engines that ran that branch line.  
When she finally rolled into Wellsworth, Irenia was glad of the rest and the drink of water while Edward kindly shunted trucks into a new train for her.  
"Are you having a good day today, Irenia?" Edward suddenly asked just as she was dozing off.  
"Yeah. Why?" She groggily replied, but received no answer from the elderly blue engine.  
"Your train is ready." He told her instead, moving out the way so she could back onto it.  
"Thank you. Have a good day, Edward." She kindly replied before she left him to rest in his siding.  
"I hope you have a good day too, Irenia." He called after her.

The black and white engine rolled into Brendam Docks with a happy wheesh that was all too familiar to the grumpy crane above.  
"Hello Cranky!" She called up as Emily rolled in beside her, but immediately scuttled back as she realised who was there, thankfully unnoticed by Irenia.  
"There you are! Where have you been?" The crane angrily confronted her, but her mood wasn't affected.  
"The Fat Controller has asked me to help take supplies around the Island. Sorry Cranky."  
The crane grumbled an inaudible reply, turning away from her to unload the trucks at the end of her train, shooing her away as soon as he could, much to the relief of the emerald engine in the shadows.

Irenia glanced nervously up Gordan's Hill as she was sat at Wellsworth for the second time that day. The rails were slippery and her train was still heavy - there was no way she could make it up on her own and Edward was gone.  
Taking a deep breath, she charged for the hill, forcing wheel turn after wheel turn as she fought towards the top.  
As she climbed higher the weight of the trucks became more and more apparent, slowing the progress she was making and reducing her grip on the rails.  
Defeated, and two thirds of the way up, she let the weight of her train roll her back down the hill as she caught her breath back, glaring back at the hill as if her gaze would make it move.  
"Do you want some help there?"  
Irenia jumped at the sound of the kindly concerned voice from behind her.  
"Y-Yes please, Ryan." She breathlessly replied, glaring back at the hill with renewed determination as she heard him buffer up to the back of the train. "Ready?"  
"Oh yeah."  
Without a warning to the purple engine she took off again, though he very quickly picked up the slack.  
This time, it was much easier for Irenia. She powered up the hill with what grip she could get, but no doubt filled her as she soon crested the hill, whistling a loud thank you to Ryan as she ran freely down the other side. She heard him shout something, but she was too far away to hear it.

The winter sun was beginning to set as an exhausted Irenia arrived into Knapford, finally loosing a large portion of her load to Thomas who was sat in the next platform along, clearly buzzing about something but Irenia didn't have time to find out what as she quickly had to move onto Tidmouth.  
"Nearly done..."  
However, she had barely come to rest in Knapford when Ryan rushed in again.  
"Hey, Irenia! Where are you going?" He asked, not even out of breath. "Aren't you meant to be going to Ulfstead Castle right now?"  
An awkward silence lingered between all the engines, all eyes on Ryan, most accusingly so, but Irenia just looked confused.  
"No...?" She slowly replied as the purple engine turned bright red.  
"I-I thought you had things for there is all." He stuttered, replying so fast that it wasn't anything but suspicious, particularly when he changed the subject. "That's all going up to Arlesbrugh and Harwick, isn't it?"  
"Um, yes?"  
"L-Let me take it for you. You look really tired."  
Before Irenia had time to protest, Ryan was already backing himself around and coupling up to her train.  
"Okay, thank you, Ryan." Irenia just let him take it. He was right, she was exhausted.  
With nothing more said, Irenia puffed back towards the roundhouse.

However, Irenia got as far as Maron before her plan suddenly changed.  
Floating above the track by balloons was a giant white banner with a black and bronze-lined arrow pointed up the Ulfstead Branch Line. Intrigued, Irenia followed the way the arrow pointed, heading seemingly forever though Whistling Woods. Irenia wasn't a fan of woodland, so she was glad when she got out.  
But that meant she was soon met with the point where the line split into three different tracks.  
Irenia didn't even hesitate. She took the central line as excitement bubbled in her boiler. She didn't even notice the second banner floating above the line she was going down.  
Excitement pushed her faster and faster as she whooshed through High Farm with no acknowledgement of the little girl stood on the platform and towards the hill that lead up to the castle, where her eyes began to glitter.  
"Can I, Driver? Please please please?" She begged.  
"Go on then." Her driver laughed, bracing himself as his engine jolted with a sudden burst of speed, thick black smoke billowing out her funnel and her whistle sounding long and loud as she climbed up to her favourite place on Sodor: Ulfstead Castle.  
The doors opened as she came over the top of the hill - which was fortunate as there was no chance that she would have stopped in time - and she was greeted by a chorus of whistles; Alaskan, English, American and others, all calling just for her to go inside and ignite the all the fireworks that launched into the sky in a grand display.  
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRENIA!"  
The castle yard was stuffed to the brim with engines. All eleven of her siblings were there, along with Alicia, Emily, Edward, Daisy and even Ryan had made it there before her, puffing forward to greet her and allow her passage into the rest of the group.  
"This is amazing!" She gasped, rolling into the group, her eyes wide as she took in all the decorations that had been put up.  
"All for you, sis!" Her younger twin brothers replied, laughing in glee at the genuine smile on her face as engines chattered around her.  
Irenia looked back as Ryan shunted into place, grinning madly.  
"You arranged this? In a _day_?" Irenia asked, her jaw on her buffers.  
"With help from everyone else here." He chuckled.  
"But, how?"  
Ryan's eyes sparkled as he laughed.  
"Birthday Magic."


End file.
